My Notes
Categories
This activity was created to extend the "First Day Review of Atomic Orbitals" LO to take up a full class period. The first part of the activity is likely familiar to many VIPER users, asking students to brainstorm and review key concepts related to atomic orbitals. (The author participated in this very activity as a student circa 2010!) The second part of this LO is new and leads students on a guided tour of the Orbitron website to review or discover the shapes of atomic orbitals and their nodal properties.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Orbitron for Viper_0.pdf | 99.14 KB |
| Orbitron for Viper_0.docx | 77.26 KB |
Students should be able to:
- Describe the meaning(s) of the word "orbital."
- Identify the four quantum numbers, give valid examples, and explain how each quantity relates to electronic structure.
- Identify radial and angular nodes and draw orbital shapes that reflect these properties.
- Interpret radial distribution plots of atomic orbitals.
Students need access to a computer or other device with a web browser to view the Orbitron website.
I created this activity to use in a synchronous, virtual class session held at the beginning of our term, though it could easily be adapted for use in an in-person class (so long as students have devices to access the Orbitron website) or for students to complete outside of class. It was used in the second class meeting, before any lecturing had taken place. Following this class, I gave a lecture that recapped the material from this activity before moving on to new topics.
To facilitate discussion over Zoom, the class was divided into breakout rooms of 3–4 students. A Google Doc containing the assignment directions and questions was shared with each group, and students were asked to record their responses in their group's document. During class, I circulated through the breakout rooms and answered questions as necessary.
Even though I developed this activity mostly to filibuster until our first in-person class meeting, I thought it went well and will definitely use it if I teach inorganic again. If I were to implement it in an in-person class meeting, I would modify the questions in the Orbitron section to ask students to draw sketches of the relevant atomic orbitals (which would have been challenging to do remotely on Google Docs).
Another useful feature of the Orbitron is the ability to examine plots of the wavefunction itself. I did not include that aspect in this activity for the sake of time, but some instructors may like to modify the instructions to prompt students to look at the wavefunction tab depending on which aspects they would like to emphasize.
Evaluation
After class, I perused each group's responses in their Google Doc to assess their level of understanding (though students were only graded on activity completion, not on correctness).
In the Orbital Review section, the groups did uniformly well on recalling the quantum numbers and their meanings. About half of the groups struggled to convey the meaning of orbital shading, with several misidentifying it as relating to positive/negative charge or spin up/down. No groups got all three questions related to orbital energy correct.
Students did well on the questions related to the Orbitron website, with all groups seeming to work out the distinction between angular and radial nodes. (I am not sure how much of this material is new to them vs. review of other courses; I have students ranging from first-years to seniors in my class.)
Half of the groups completed the assignment in the time allotted in class (~40–45 min). The other groups all made it at least 2/3 through the Orbitron questions but did not finish by the end of class.